A highlight of any visit to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World is the parades. I had premium viewing spots for the Festival of Fantasy Parade, which I saw twice—once on my own and once with my daughter. The best experience, of course, was seeing it with Bella.
Two characters even came up to the handicap rope to shake my hand: Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty and Bashful from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
“There’s a big dragon back there,” Prince Philip told me. “I hope that you will help me vanquish it.”
“It would be my honor, sir,” I told him.
The Festival of Fantasy Parade starts with the 50-foot Floral Princess Garden float, which includes rotating turntables to ensure that every guest has a great view of the royal couples led by Cinderella, Tiana, Belle, Anna, and Elsa, along with their princes. The Tangled float is a 36-foot pirate-style longship featuring Rapunzel and Flynn Rider and complete with a swinging wooden pendulum that carries the dastardly thugs over the parade route. Next, The Little Mermaid float is designed like a giant kinetic seashell music box in which Ariel rides atop a colorful school of dancing fish below her. The Peter Pan ship includes a flying Peter Pan and Wendy suspended by wire cables as the Jolly Roger soars 28 feet above the street. Captain Hook swings from a dangling anchor while being chased by the giant crocodile as he attempts to attack Peter Pan.
The Brave float includes a ship inspired by the Scottish Highlands carrying Merida and her triplet brothers in their bear forms. Sleeping Beauty’s float is a 53-foot-long, 26-foot-tall steampunk-inspired Maleficent dragon built on an articulating chassis that moves fluidly and breathes real fire as Prince Philip battles it on foot. The parade culminates with the Mickey and Minnie float, a 90-foot caravan of characters including Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the Mad Hatter. Mickey and Minnie sit high above the crowd in a 32-foot hot air balloon surrounded by the dancing hippos from Fantasia.
Bella and I also had the privilege of meeting the Mad Hatter and Alice from Alice in Wonderland, who told us about the parade and encouraged us to be sure to catch it. The Mad Hatter also said that he was preparing a tea party for the Queen of Hearts and was planning to paint the teacups red. He wanted to invite all of us to the tea party, especially me since I was wearing red. When I told him that red was my favorite color, he became very excited and said that I would fit in perfectly.
Meeting Peter Pan and Wendy was another genuine thrill for me. Bella, Emily, and I met Peter Pan on our second day at the Magic Kingdom, and it was just the lift our spirits needed.
“Thank you for coming and sharing your happy thoughts with us,” Peter Pan said to me.
“It’s been my honor to meet you,” I replied. “You have given us the happy thoughts we needed for today.”
We also enjoyed meeting the wicked stepsisters from Cinderella, Anastasia and Drizella. Though they were not nearly as wicked in person as they are in the film, I did ask Anastasia if she was still seeing the baker from Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, which depicts the redemption of one of the evil stepsisters.
“Yes,” she whispered, “but don’t tell my mother. I’ll never be able to marry him because he’s not rich.”
They also reported to me that Lucifer the cat was doing well, but that Bruno the dog and the mice had left the castle since Cinderella’s departure with Prince Charming following the wedding.
Wendy from Peter Pan was also kind enough to tell me that Nana, the Saint Bernard, was doing very well and that her younger brothers, Michael and John, were still having fun portraying Peter Pan and Captain Hook in playful battles in the nursery. Peter Pan told me that Nana still jumps on him to play games but does not chomp at his shadow as she did in the original film.
Meeting Donald and Daisy was also a genuine thrill, as Donald is a favorite character of both of the girls. They were dressed in their circus attire as fortune tellers, and Daisy looked beautiful in her colorful costume. I reminded Donald what a lucky guy he was to have such a beautiful lady as Daisy. After all, it was 16 years ago that I found Emily, my equivalent of Daisy.
I also reminded him not to lose his temper around her and to do everything he could to keep her happy, a promise he assured me he would keep. I assured him that we were all very big fans of his and thought he deserved a chance to be Disney’s number one star.
In terms of classic shows, one of Walt Disney World’s original attractions featuring Sherman Brothers music was Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. These beautifully colorful Audio-Animatronic birds provided a fantastic musical show and even a pre-show featuring two birds, one of which was voiced by one of Disney’s original great voice actors, Sebastian Cabot, best known as the narrator of the Winnie the Pooh films and as Bagheera the panther in The Jungle Book.
These vintage presentations, which came directly from the mind of Walt Disney, are among the most important attractions to me. Even though they may appear dated to some, the nostalgia and brilliance of Walt Disney are evident in every aspect of them. Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room and its famous theme song are prime examples of this.
Stay tuned for our final jaunt into the Magic Kingdom—and Walt Disney World as a whole.
